Hyderabad: The year 2024 witnessed devastating natural disasters in India, leaving hundreds dead and uprooting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people. Of the episodes of nature's fury in the country, the landslides in Kerala's Wayanad in June were the worst as they left over 400 dead with the rehabilitation process still underway.
Wayanad landslides
In the wee hours of July 30, rainfall triggered landslides in Chooralmala and Mundakkai villages in Wayanad and a massive rescue operation was launched in the area. The impact of the landslides was such that many kilometres were completely washed away, prompting the administration to undertake an emergency relocation of the affected people to rescue shelters. This apart, several hectares of agricultural plots were damaged resulting in huge losses for farmers.
Although Wayanad is vulnerable to landslides, a disaster of such a magnitude was unprecedented with losses pegged at Rs 1200 crore.
Amid the controversy over the Centre declining the Kerala government's request for 'natural disaster' status to the landslides, the latter expedited its rehabilitation process. The first draft list for rehabilitationincludes 388 families from affected wards of Mundakkai, Attamala and Chooramala, but with locals alleging that many deserving families were excluded, the government has announced that complaints can be filed until January 10, 2025.
Apart from landslides, India experienced the wrath of nature in its worst forms, including cyclones and devastating floods, killing many people, rendering several homeless along causing major destruction to property. The first disaster of this year hit the eastern part of India as cyclone Remal crashed upon West Bengal on May 25. This was the first depression and cyclonic storm of the 2024 North Indian Ocean cyclone season.
A timeline of some of the disasters of 2024
Remal
Severe cyclone Remal, which had a wind speed of 100 to 135 kmph during landfall, claimed 33 lives across Bengal, Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya. The cyclone was followed by a severe power outage and the states sought Central assistance for undertaking rehabilitation work.
- West Bengalgovernment announced acompensation of Rs 1.2 lakh to people whose houses were destroyed. Nearly 15,000 houses were affected
- Mizoramsought assistance amounting to Rs 237.6 crore from the centre to address the damage caused by Remal which had killed 34 people and caused significant destruction to public and private property.
- In Assam, Remal left nine districts in the grip of floods, affecting 2 lakh people and damaging over 3,239 hectares of agricultural land while the official death toll of two was recorded.
Dana
A low pressure formed in the south of the Bay of Bengal on October 20 culminated in a depression and intensified into cyclonic storm Dana. The storm, which made landfall between Dhamra and Bhitarkanika, was accompanied by heavy rainfall and claimed two lives in West Bengal. The red warning was issued in Odisha's Bhadrak, Balasore, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who monitored the situation overnight from state secretariat Nabanna, later said that 2.16 lakh people were evacuated.
Assam floods
Overall, nearly 117 people died in devastating floods that occurred in Assam this year. Union MoS of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai earlier told Parliament that 880 deaths were recorded due to floods in Assam from 2019 to July 2024.